HOW  TO  MAKE 

MONEY 


Three  Lesson  Lectures 
Containing  "The 
Kernel"  of  all  New 
Thought  Teaching  on 
MONEY  MAKING. 


B .    F.    AUSTIN 


25  Cents 


HOW  TO  MAKE 

MONEY 


THREE  LECTURES  ON  'THE  LAWS  OF 
FINANCIAL  SUCCESS" 

B.   F.  AUSTIN 


THE  AUSTIN  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


SOLD  BY 

Modern  Mind  Book  Shop 

1128  MASONIC  TEMPLE 
Chicago,   111. 


COPYRIGHTED  1918 

BY 
B.  F.  AUSTIN 


PURPOSE  OF  THE  LESSONS 

The  purpose  of  these  lessons  is  to  raise 
the  mental  and  spiritual  vibrations  of  the 
student — to  inspire  hope,  faith,  courage — to 
awaken  larger  thought  within  the  mind,  in- 
spire greater  plans  and  purposes  and  awak- 
en the  dormant  energy  in  the  life — to  fire 
the  enthusiasm  and  call  into  active  service 
hidden  talent  which  the  student,  possibly, 
does  not  dream  at  his  present  stage  of  un- 
foldment,  he  possesses. 

In  short  our  purpose  is  to  awaken  men 
from  mental  slumber,  show  the  unlimited 
resources  in  human  nature,  the  unseen  yet 
open  doors  to  mental  wealth  first,  then  as 
a  natural  sequence  to  wealth  in  material 
conditions,  and  thus  enlarge  and  ennoble 
the  life  as  well  as  add  to  its  material  ex- 
pressions. 

The  purpose  of  the  true  teacher — who  is 
ever  the  true  physician  as  well — must  al- 
ways be  the  "more  abundant  life"  of  which 
the  Nazarene  spoke  and  taught.  To  dis- 
close that  life,  abounding  life,  in  all  its 
fullness  and  beauty  and  point  out  the  laws 
by  which  it  is  gained,  with  wealth  as  a 
natural  sequence,  is  the  purpose  of  the 
three  lessons  on  which  we  are  entering. 

3 


387268 


A  PROPHECY  OF  RESULTS 
FROM  THESE  LESSONS 

Prophecies  based  on  observation  and  ex- 
perience, and  knowledge  of  natural  law,  are 
exceedingly  instructive  and  valuable.  We 
predict  most  confidently  that  every  student 
of  these  lessons  will  have  after  reading 
them — and  especially  after  their  re-reading 
and  study — a  larger  store  of  information  on 
the  subject  of  Success  in  Life,  brighter 
hopes,  more  enthusiasm,  more  "vim,"  "grit" 
and  "gumption"  in  business,  and  will  at- 
tack his  life  work  with  such  enlarged  wis- 
dom and  such  intense  energy  that  hereafter 
his  life  will  become  in  every  way  more  suc- 
cessful and  bring  him  into  larger  freedom, 
greater  happiness  and  power  and  ampler 
resources  financially. 

In  short,  no  one  can  apply  the  teachings 
of  these  lessons  without  his  life  becoming 
larger,  nobler  and  purer,  and  more  enjoy- 
able in  the  possession  of  mental  and  mater- 
ial wealth.  And  the  life  that  receives  and 
applies  these  teachings  will  be  like  a  fertil- 
izing stream  in  the  desert,  making  it  bud 
and  blossom  like  the  rose. 

THE  REASONS  FOR  THIS 
PROPHECY 

With  absolute  confidence  I  make  this 
prophecy,  because  I  shall  give  you  not 
theories,  spun  from  the  imagination  of  the 

4 


poet  or  novelist  or  from  some  dreamy  phil- 
osopher in  the  seclusion  of  his  study,  or 
some  penny-a-liner  who  is  paid  so  much 
per  page  for  his  theories,  but  the  actual  re- 
sults of  human  experience  and  a  study  of 
nature's  laws  and  especially  of  the  laws  of 
financial  gain.  I  shall  give  you  "the  kernel" 
of  the  best  teachings  of  a  score  of  our  ablest 
psychologists  and  new  thought  writers  in 
concentrated  form.  And  I  shall  give  the 
personal  testimony  of  those  who  have  risen 
from  poverty  to  wealth  through  discovery 
of  the  laws  of  financial  success  and  their 
application  to  the  life.  The  principles  here 
laid  down  have  been  tested  over  and  over 
again  in  the  laboratory  of  life's  experiences 
and  found  correct  and  practicable. 

Moreover  I  myself  have  proved  them  and 
I  illustrate  these  principles  and  prove  their 
value  in  my  own  life. 

Another  reason  why  we  most  confidently 
predict  success  to  the  students  of  ,  this 
course  is  the  fact  that  the  teachings  are 
rational,  being  in  accord  with  life  and  human 
experience,  and  based  on  laws  that  are  now 
known  and  recognized  as  governing  the  ac- 
cumulation of  wealth.  These  is  nothing  of 
mystical  charm,  no  miracle  involved,  noth- 
ing of  the  "cheap  nostrum"  order  about 
them.  Our  method  is  simply  reason  ampli- 
fied and  set  to  work,  energy  awakened  and 
employed,  laws  discovered  and  followed  out 
5 


— with  the  one  inevitable  result:  enlarged 
and  ennobled  character,  mental  and  material 
wealth. 

NO  SPECIAL  ENDOWMENT 
REQUIRED  FOR  MONEY- 
MAKING 

The  way  to  competence,  if  not  wealth,  is 
open  to  every  man  of  sound  body  and  mind 
who  will  study  and  apply  these  laws.  The 
fact  that  great  riches  belong  to  the  few,  and 
that  some  men  seem  to  stumble  on  riches 
and  others  seek  them  in  vain  for  a  life  time 
— generally  without  knowledge  of  the  law 
or  application  in  the  life — has  led  some  to 
suppose  that  a  special  endowment  of  nature 
is  necessary  to  enable  one  to  attain  wealth. 
Doubtless  a  few  men  without  a  theoretical 
knowledge  of  the  law  have  applied  it  in  their 
lives,  and  unquestionably  some  few  men 
seem  to  come  into  wealth  by  "chance"  or 
"luck,"  yet  there  is  really  no  such  thing  as 
chance  in  a  universe  of  law — and  the  vast 
majority  of  men  who  have  won  wealth  have 
either  through  their  own  mentality,  or  by 
the  teachings  of  others,  or  by  inspiration, 
come  to  know  the  law  and  apply  it  in  their 
own  lives. 

/Every  man  of  sound  mind  and  body,  we 
repeat,  can  become  master  of  conditions  in 
his  life — in  place  of  being  enslaved,  as  the 
multitudes  are,  by  these  conditions.  There 


is  a  pathway  from  poverty  to  wealth,  from 
obscurity  to  fame,  from  weakness  to 
strength,  from  the  servile  and  pigmy  condi- 
tion of  mind  and  life,  to  Kingship  in  mind 
and  in  estate.  The  door  of  opportunity  is 
open — or,  at  least,  unlocked. 

NATURE  PLANS 
ABUNDANCE  FOR  ALL 

Another  introductory  consideration 
worthy  our  attention  is  the  fact  that  the 
evident  plan  of  God  as  revealed  in  nature 
is  abundance  for  all.  Poverty  is  no  part  of 
nature's  plan — but  the  very  reverse  is  true: 
Nature  designed  abundance  for  all.  Her 
provision  for  man's  wants  covers  not  only 
his  necessities  but  a  super  abundance  is 
the  law  of  Nature's  beneficence.  The  trac- 
ing of  disease,  poverty  and  suffering  to  the 
design  of  God  was,  indeed,  a  part  of  the  Old 
Theology,  which  is  now  practically  dead 
and  superceded  by  the  New  Theology 
which  traces  all  of  these  evils  to  ignorance 
and  neglect  of  law. 

As  children  of  God  we  inherit  not  only 
the  right  to  life,  but  to  all  that  makes  life 
worth  living.  But  every  life  is  "cabin'd, 
cribbed,  confined"  by  poverty.  In  fact 
freedom,  power,  happiness,  education,  cul- 
ture, travel,  books,  art,  music,  recreation — 
the  things  that  made  life  worth  the  living — 
are  really  impossible  without  wealth. 


Not  only  is  our  own  life  robbed  of  its 
full  and  happy  expression  by  poverty,  but 
man's  service  of  his  fellowmen  is  limited 
on  every  hand  by  poverty.  Men  who  pos- 
sess in  their  own  mentality  great  truths 
that  would  instruct  and  inspire  the  multi- 
tude, or  great  plans  for  reforming  our  de- 
plorable social  and  economic  system,  or 
great  purposes  of  charity  toward  the  needy, 
\  or  great  reforms  they  would  like  to  see 
\realized  find  themselves  hampered  and  hin- 
dered in  all  their  noble  work  by  "lack  of 
funds." 

The  world — sad  to  state — estimates  a 
man  not  by  his  knowledge,  or  his  character, 
v^so  much  as  by  the  size  of  his  bank  account. 
A  public  lecturer  said  recently  in  my  hear- 
ing— and  was  applauded  in  saying  it — he 
respected  no  man  who  did  not  have  a  good 
bank  account. 

Harsh  as  this  may  appear,  we  shall  show 
there  is  at  least  a  small  measure  of  justice 
in  it  by  pointing  out  that  Poverty  is  essen- 
tially a  Mental  Disease,  and  that  from  the 
standpoint  of  character  itself — in  this  age 
of  golden  opportunities — it  is  no  credit  to  a 
man  to  be  poor. 

8 


OUR  DESIRES  ARE 
PROPHECIES  AND  SHOW 
THE  POSSIBILITY  OF 
WEALTH 

All  students  of  nature  and  of  man  recog- 
nize that  the  possession  of  a  desire  within 
the  soul  for  any  real  or  supposed  good,  is 
a  natural  prophecy  proving  there  is  some- 
where in  Nature's  realm  a  source  of  satis- 
faction for  that  desire.  If  my  student,  then, 
believes  in  a  Personal  God  as  the  designer 
of  all  things,  can  he  possibly  conclude  that 
God  intended  to  mock  us  by  desires  impos- 
sible of  fulfillment?  If  so,  as  Helen  Wil- 
mans  aptly  declares,  these  desires  implant- 
ed within  us  are  simply  "promissory  notes 
on  a  ruined  bank."  Again,  if  these  desires 
for  wealth  are  not  true  prophecies,  man  is 
destined  as  he  emerges  from  barbarism  to 
civilization,  to  increasing  misery  and  suf- 
ering,  since  desires  multiply  and  intensify 
as  man  advances  along  the  upward  path  of 
evolution.  All  studies,  therefore,  of  nature 
and  the  human  soul  tend  to  convince  us 
that  man's  life  should  have  an  abundance 
of  temporal  good — in  short  that  man  should 
rule  his  conditions  and  not  be  ruled  by 
them.  We  go  still  farther  and  unhesitating- 
ly assert  it  is 

9 


EVERY  MAN'S  DUTY  TO 
MAKE  ALL  THE  MONEY 
HE  CAN  HONESTLY 

At  first  sight  it  might  seem  that  inheri- 
tors of  great  wealth — having  no  need  of 
more  money  and  no  love  of  business  or  la- 
bor— might  be  excused  from  the  task  of 
money  making.  Not  so,  however.  Every 
man  who  enjoys  the  advantages  of  our  won- 
derful civilization,  who  eats  the  food  some 
toiler  has  grown,  or  wears  the  garments 
some  toiler  has  made,  who  enjoys  the  pro- 
tection which  is  freely  granted  to  all,  owes 
a  personal  debt  to  the  world.  Despite  his 
large  bank  account  and  broad  acres  he  is 
but  a  refined  "pauper"  if  in  some  way  he 
does  not  add  to  the  wealth  of  the  world. 

And  no  man  has  enough  wealth  to  supply, 
not  only  his  own  need,  but  to  fully  meet 
the  claims  of  a  world  in  sickness,  suffering 
and  sorrow,  and  to  plan  and  prosecute  the 
great  living  reforms  of  this  age. 

A  man  should  demand  of  himself,  of  so- 
cienty,  of  his  God,  abundance  of  temporal 
good.  The  stream  of  abundance  should 
flow  with  increasing  volume  into  his  life, 
and  the  stream  of  beneficence  should  flow 
with  equal  freedom  out  of  his  heart  and 
life,  to  supply  the  higher  needs  of  humanity. 
"Freely  receive;  freely  give."  The  ideal 
life  is  the  one  in  which  a  liberal  kingly  in- 

10 


come  is  assured — and  man  in  the  royalty 
and  beneficence  of  his  nature  should  give 
like  a  king. 

No  life  can  reach  its  maximum  of  enjoy- 
ment, power  and  usefulness  without  wealth. 

IS  THERE  GREAT  DANGER 
IN  ACQUIRING  WEALTH? 

Undoubtedly — but  greater  dangers  still  in 
the  lack  of  wealth.  The  one  great  danger/  >.£< 
in  acquiring  money  and  in  possessing  it,  is\ 
the  danger  of  becoming  a  slave  to  gold.  J 
This  is  one  of  the  vilest  forms  of  slavery  ( 
and,  perhaps,  no  other  form  of  idolatry  is 
quite  so  benumbing  to  all  the  higher  and 
diviner  qualities  of  manhood  as  avarice.  The 
miser  is  of  all  characters  most  despised  and 
illustrates  the  truth  of  the  old  proverb 
"Money  is  a  good  servant  but  a  hard  mas- 
ter." No  other  type  of  character  exhibits 
such  unreasoning  folly  and  seems  so  fully 
to  merit  the  rebuke:  "Thou  Fool."  The 
one  safeguard  in  the  acquisition  of  wealth 
is  the  constant,  unremitting  cultivation  of 
the  human  sympathies  and  the  exercise  of 
benevolence.  Without  this,  the  acquisition 
of  money  is  generally  attended  by  a  freez- 
ing up  of  the  moral  nature  and  a  growing 
love  for  money  for  purely  selfish  purposes, 
or  for  money's  sake,  ending  in  avarice  and 
the  wretched  condition  of  the  miser.  It  is 
quite  easy  to  see  how  the  rigid  economy 
11 


many  feel  called  upon  to  exercise  in  rising 
from  poverty  to  wealth,  and  the  constant 
mental  habit  of  reaching  out  in  desire  and 
act  for  material  gain,  would  in  the  lapse  of 
years  work  a  transformation  of  character,  so 
that  men  who  set  out  in  life  with  an  ambi- 
tion to  acquire  a  fortune  for  the  uplift  of 
humanity,  find  with  the  gaining  of  the  for- 
tune they  have  lost  all  benevolent  desire. 
This  is  an  unspeakable  calamity  to  multi- 
tudes of  men  who  become  enslaved  not  by 
money,  but  by  the  love  of  money,  and  miss 
the  grandest  opportunity  of  a  life  dowered 
with  the  possession  of  money — the  privilege 
of  using  wealth  to  enrich  themselves  and 
their  fellows  with  that  increasing  knowl- 
edge, happiness  and  virtue,  that  constitute 
the  eternal  riches  of  the  soul. 

Better  a  thousandfold  for  a  man  that  he 
live  and  die  under  the  disadvantages  and 
limitations  and  hardships  of  poverty  and 
retain  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  and  human- 
ity in  his  heart,  than  to  acquire  the  wealth 
of  Croesus  and  shrink  his  soul  up  to  the 
littleness,  meanness  and  wretchedness  of  a 
miser. 

A  very  good  test  of  our  own  soul  attitude 
toward  money,  a  very  fair  indication  of 
how  we  would  use  great  wealth  if  it  came 
to  us,  may  be  had  in  the  serious  answer  of 
the  question:  How  are  we  using  the  mea- 
12 


sure  of  wealth  which  is  ours  today?  How 
much  have  we  contributed  to  purely  benev- 
olent objects  this  past  year? 

A  man  should  ever  recognize  his  own 
kingship  and  demand  a  liberal  income  from 
the  world,  and  it  is  his  business  to  see  to  it 
that  all  obstacles  in  himself  and  his  environ- 
ment are  removed  which  would  hinder  a 
generous  flow  of  Nature's  great  stream  of 
Opulence  toward  himself.  And  then  he 
should  live  like  a  king,  and  be  as  generous 
as  a  king,  with  his  fellowmen. 

WE  SEEK  TO  INTENSIFY 
YOUR  DESIRES  FOR  WEALTH 

In  place  of  encouraging  contentment  with 
Poverty,  we  preach  the  Gospel  of  Discon- 
tent. We  would  whet  your  desires  for 
wealth  and  intensify  your  love — not  of 
money — but  of  the  good  things  in  life  which 
money  represents.  It  is  a  misinterpretation 
of  life  and  of  all  true  religion  to  deny  either 
the  vast  advantages  of  money  on  the  one 
hand,  or  the  right  and  duty  of  all  men  to 
possess  and  use  it  in  as  large  a  degree  as 
is  consistent  with  honor  and  justice.  The 
inherent  desires  of  men,  the  demands  of  the 
world  today  upon  us  in  our  complex  civili- 
zation, the  Law  of  Opulence  everywhere 
seen  in  Nature,  all  prove  that  men  ought 
to  conquer  conditions  and  amass  wealth. 
13 


LESSON  I. 

THE  MAKING  OVER  OF 
ONE'S  SELF 

Our  first  lesson  is  introductory,  desir- 
ing to  give  the  student  the  right  viewpoint 
of  the  subject,  to  enable  him  to  see  clearly 
the  relation  between  character  and  achieve- 
ments in  life,  and  to  clear  the  ground  for 
the  practical  rules  and  instructions  to  fol- 
low: 

Our  first  rule  then,  and  one  of  the  most 
important  of  all,  is  this : 

MAKE  YOURSELF  OVER 

The  student  of  these  lessons  will  very 
probably  interpose  this  objection:  We  ex- 
pected to  get  practical  instructions  in 
money-making  and  our  teacher  is  giving  us 
theoretical  instruction  in  the  building  of 
character. 

And  for  the  very  good  reason  that  money- 
making,  money-keeping  and  right  money- 
using  depend  on  character.  Nothing  more 
directly  bearing  on  material  interests  could 
be  given  a  student  than  the  up-building  of 
a  strong,  progressive,  courageous  and  de- 
termined character.  All  real  success  in  life 
in  all  departments  of  human  endeavor  de- 
pends on  that.  Men  conquer  material  con- 
ditions by  first  conquering  themselves.  Men 
become  rich  in  worldly  goods  by  becoming 
14 


rich  in  intellectual  power,  in  faith,  hope, 
courage,  and  in  the  creative  powers  of  the 
mind.  The  outward  life  is  a  reflex  of  the 
inward  life — and  no  man  can  become  mas- 
ter of  the  outward  and  physical  realms  who 
does  not  master  the  kingdom  within.  No 
one  is  prepared  to  make  wealth,  conserve 
wealth,  or  rightly  use  wealth,  who  is  in 
mental  poverty,  moral  weakness  or  of  a 
cowardly  spirit. 

The  Great  Master  of  Nazareth  knew  the 
order  in  which  happiness,  harmony,  health 
and  riches — in  fact  all  outward  good — come 
into  the  life,  and  expressed  it  when  he  said : 
"Seek  first  the  Kingdom  that  is  within — 
and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you." 

Multitudes  of  men  want  results  in  their 
lives  without  the  trouble  on  their  part  of 
furnishing  the  efficient  cause.  But  results 
do  not  come  from  mere  wishing.  Harvests 
do  not  come  without  the  sweat  and  toil  of 
the  laborer  and  the  sowing  of  the  seed. 

All  the  greatest  blessings  of  life  and  all 
our  mightiest  achievements  result  from  right 
thinking,  right  feeling  and  right  willing. 

Until  a  man  gets  the  right  conception  of 
the  meaning  of  life,  of  the  unlimited  pow- 
ers of  the  human  soul,  until  his  nature  is 
burning  with  desire  to  do  and  dare  and  win, 
until  his  Will  is  developed  by  exercise  and 
he  has  acquired  Courage  and  indomitable 

15 


Perseverance,  he  is  poorly  equipped  for 
either  attaining  or  rightly  using  money.  It 
is  well  worth  the  student's  attention,  there- 
fore, to  study  the  relation  between  strong 
character  and  great  achievements. 

Most  people  have  to  do  considerable  ju- 
dicious weeding  in  the  garden  of  their 
minds — getting  rid  of  many  inherited  and 
traditional  ideas  and  notions  of  earlier  times 
— freeing  the  mentality  from  Fear,  Worry, 
Doubt,  and  planting  therein  the  seeds  of 
Faith  in  themselves,  in  Nature,  in  the  Law 
of  Opulence,  Faith  in  their  own  Rights,  and 
developing  Courage,  Hope,  Ambition  and 
Patience,  until  mentally  and  spiritually  they 
have  rebuilt  themselves  into  a  nobler  type 
of  being. 

As  man's  present  outward  condition — 
whether  poverty  or  wealth,  happiness  or 
misery — is  largely  the  result  of  his  past 
methods  of  thinking,  so  will  the  future  out- 
ward conditions  be  the  direct  outgrowth  of 
his  future  methods  of  thinking. 

"As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is 
he" — which  is  but  another  way  of  saying 
that  man's  body  is  the  result  of  his  think- 
ing (conscious  or  unconscious)  ;  his  speech, 
manner,  gait,  his  culture  conduct,  his  in- 
fluence among  men,  his  success  or  failure — 
all  are  the  natural  sequence  of  his  thoughts. 

How,  then,  you  ask,  can  one  make  him- 
16 


self  over?  Just  as  a  tailor  makes  over  a 
coat,  a  carpenter  makes  over  a  house,  a 
shipbuilder  makes  over  a  ship — by  changing 
the  pattern  or  the  design.  We  build  our 
lives  from  Ideals  as  the  carpenter  builds 
his  house  from  plans.  If  we  change  our 
ideas,  our  conceptions  of  life,  its  privileges 
and  responsibilities,  our  thoughts  of  our- 
selves, our  ideals  of  character,  and  persist 
in  holding  the  new  ideas  and  ideals,  we  shall 
develop  characters  in  harmony  with  them. 
Whatever  we  want  in  our  outward  life  in 
material  expression,  we  must  first  build  into 
our  mental  life,  into  our  Ideals,  Purposes 
and  Will. 

Events,  conditions  and  seeming  results 
of  chance  or  miracle  in  our  outward  life,  are 
all  under  law  and  in  reality  are  mostly  gen- 
uine materializations  of  forms  we  have 
built  up  in  our  thought  realm. 

Life  proceeds  as  a  stream  from  the  "with- 
in" to  the  "without,"  from  the  mental  and 
spiritual  to  the  physical  and  material  ex- 
pressions. We  must  therefore  create  wealth 
in  the  mind  before  we  realize  its  possession 
in  the  life. 

This  is  not  peculiar  to  the  subject  of 
money-making  but  applies  to  all  life's  ac- 
tivities, as  we  see  that  the  architect  first 
builds  his  house  in  his  mind  before  he  erects 
it  on  the  material  plane;  the  engineer  con- 
17 


structs  his  tunnel  mentally  before  he  pierces 
the  mountain  or  builds  his  underground 
railway;  the  financial  magnate  builds  his 
plans  of  commercial  conquest  or  aggression 
in  the  silence  and  secrecy  of  his  own  mind 
before  he  takes  the  first  step  toward  their 
outward  realization. 

We  shall  treat  this  more  fully  in  suc- 
ceeding pages — sufficient  for  the  student  at 
present  to  be  impressed  with  the  great  fact 
that  right  ideas  and  conceptions,  right  plans 
and  purposes,  clear  vision  of  opportunities, 
a  strongly  developed  power  of  mental  crea- 
tion, unflinching  courage,  an  adamantine 
will  and  a  perseverance  that  never  tires,  are 
among  the  essential  requisites  in  money- 
making. 

Let  me  assure  the  student  of  these  pages 
that  much  thought,  time  and  effort  spent 
in  getting  a  clear  grasp  of  these  truths,  and 
in  weeding  out  erroneous  ideas  and  impres- 
sions from  the  mind,  in  getting  a  right  view- 
point of  this  subject,  a  right  concept  of  one's 
own  place  in  nature  as  Lord  and  Master, 
a  right  view  of  one's  intimate  relation  to, 
and  vital  connection  with,  the  Great  Source 
of  all  Wisdom,  Strength  and  Goodness, 
through  which  he  may  draw  unlimited  sup- 
plies in  all  life's  honest  endeavors,  is  not 
wasted,  but  will  prove  of  unspeakable  ad- 
vantage to  him  in  conquering  Poverty  and 
acquiring  Wealth. 

18 


These  considerations  are  not  incidental, 
or  accessory,  but  vital  and  fundamental  to 
the  subject. 

The  student,  therefore,  should  make  a 
close  inspection  of  his  own  mental  and 
spiritual  equipment  for  the  great  struggle 
he  is  to  enter  upon  in  the  conquest  of  the 
conditions  and  limitations  of  life. 

Then  he  must  gain  by  reflection,  study 
and  experience  a  clear  and  lofty  ideal  of 
the  type  of  character  he  would  reach,  the 
style  of  man  he  must  become  if  he  would 
succeed  in  the  race  for  wealth,  in  the  battle 
he  would  fight  to  rise  from  the  "cabined, 
cribbed  and  confined"  conditions  of  poverty 
to  the  enjoyment  and  power  of  great  wealth. 

He  will  doubtless  find  himself  in  posses- 
sion of  qualities  of  mind  and  traits  of  char- 
acter not  only  useless  but  positively  detri- 
mental to  success  in  life.  These  he  must — 
no  matter  how  great  the  effort  or  long  the 
struggle — eliminate.  Then  he  will  find 
other  mental  qualities  and  characteristics  es- 
sential to  success  conspicuous  by  their  ab- 
sence, or  by  very  faint  expression  in  his 
life.  These  he  must  develop,  nourish,  exer- 
cise and  call  into  Strength  and  Beauty. 

So  the  work  of  making  one's   self  over 

is  a  three-fold  work:  a  thorough  diagnosis 

of  our  own  mental,  moral     and     spiritual 

equipment  for  the  battle  before  us ;  elimina- 

19 


tion  of  undesirable  ideas,  characteristics, 
habits,  etc.;  and  the  cultivation  of  the  un- 
developed germs  of  mental  and  spiritual 
qualities  essential  to  success. 

This  three-fold  work  of  preparation  is  as 
rational  and  essential  to  one  seeking  wealth 
as  the  careful  study  of  the  mental  qualities, 
the  physical  endowment  and  the  rigid  train- 
ing of  the  athlete  before  a  contest — as  nec- 
essary as  the  discipline,  training  and  equip- 
ment of  the  soldier  in  war. 

The  man  who  thinks  himself  qualified 
without  this  three-fold  mental  discipline  to 
enter  upon  the  fierce  competitions  and  tre- 
mendous difficulties  in  his  struggle  for  his 
share  of  worldly  good,  is  as  truly  a  fool  as 
the  man  who,  untrained,  wages  war  with 
the  athlete  in  the  arena. 

No  one  but  a  fool  expects  the  harvest 
without  toil  and  seed-sowing.  Only  the 
fool  expects  results  without  adequate  cause. 
Right  ideas,  views  of  life,  right  conceptions 
of  your  own  powers,  right  ideals  and  pur- 
poses, the  right  courage  and  will  and  the 
right  hope  and  spirit,  constitute  the  ade- 
quate cause  for  the  result  we  call  success. 
They  are  the  fruitful  seed  of  the  harvest 
you  wish  to  reap. 

The  student  cannot  be  too  deeply  impres- 
sed with  the  necessity  of  this  mental  and 
spiritual  preparation.  In  this  making-over 

20 


process,  time,  money,  effort  and  zeal  are 
well  expended.  Every  teacher  who  can 
give  you  a  fruitful  idea,  every  book  that 
can  bring  a  real  inspiration,  every  exercise 
of  mental  gymnastics  that  can  strengthen 
the  will,  every  ray  of  light  that  can  give 
you  clearer  vision  of  true  ideals,  is  of  price- 
less value  to  you. 

POVERTY  IS  A  MENTAL 
DISEASE 

Of  course  there  are  exceptional  cases 
where  from  some  misfortune  or  wrong 
doing  of  others,  Poverty  seems  forced  upon 
an  individual,  either  by  uncontrollable  cir- 
cumstances in  his  own  life,  or  by  the  action 
of  others.  Yet  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases 
the  Poverty  of  man's  material  condition  is 
the  natural  and  inevitable  result  of  Poverty 
in  himself — in  his  thought  realm  of  reason- 
ing, emotion  and  volition.  The  mental 
Poverty  is  mother  and  father  of  the  Poverty 
of  his  material  conditions.  The  outward 
conditions  of  a  man's  life  are  a  reflex  of  his 
thought  world.  This  view  of  the  case  will 
help  the  student  in  his  resolve  to  thoroughly 
diagnose  the  condition  of  his  thought  realm 
and  to  bring  his  mental  machinery  into 
such  a  state  of  efficiency  that  his  whole  char- 
acter will  assume  a  nobler  type,  and  with 
the  natural  result  that  his  outer  conditions 
shall  reflect  his  improved  mentality. 

21 


ELIMINATE  WRONG  IDEAS, 
IDEALS,  MOODS 

Among  the  erroneous  notions  which  it 
may  be  necessary  to  root  out  of  the  mind 
is  the  thought  (traceable  to  false  religious 
teaching)  that  the  possession  of  much 
money  is  not  in  harmony  with  true  religion. 
It  is  quite  true  that  the  love  of  money  is 
a  root  of  evil,  and  that  many  who  have  great 
wealth  are  under  great  temptations  to  neg- 
lect their  spiritual  interests.  But  note  this 
fact  that  while  money  loved  and  worshipped, 
and  money  hoarded  by  miserly  avarice,  are 
great  evils  and  a  source  of  great  tempta- 
tion, poverty  on  the  other  hand,  has  its 
peculiar  evils  and  temptations,  and  that  no 
position  in  life  is  free  from  possible  temp- 
tation, while  every  blessing  in  life,  by  abuse, 
many  become  a  curse.  Note  also  that  the 
evident  design  of  nature  is  abundance  and 
not  poverty — so  that  while  we  may  say  God 
is  the  author  of  Beneficence  and  Abundance, 
and  nature's  law  is  certainly  Opulence — no 
one  can  say  God  is  the  author  of  Poverty. 
The  end  nature  aims  at  is  Abundance  for 
All  and  if  we  must  find  an  origin  for  Pov- 
erty we  can  never  trace  it  to  divine  de- 
sign. 

The  notion  that  sickness,  suffering  and 
poverty  are  in  any  way  necessarily  related 
to  a  religious  life,  is  one  of  the  falsest  teach- 
22 


ings  ever  given  out  in  the  name  of  religion. 
God  is  the  author  of  Health,  Happiness, 
Wealth  and  Wisdom,  and  sickness,  misery, 
poverty,  ignorance,  are  incidents  of  our 
undeveloped  condition  or  results  of  our  own 
neglect.  No  life  under  the  blighting  in- 
fluence of  poverty  can  prove  the  "abundant 
life,"  the  full-orbed,  symmetrical  and  bene- 
ficient  life,  which  every  rational  man  de- 
sires. 

The  Worry  Fiend  and  his  Allies  must  be 
routed  if  you  are  to  secure  that  peace  and 
inward  calm  so  essential  to  efficient  think- 
ing and  working.  Psychology  today  in 
trumpet  tones  declares  that  no  one  can  en- 
joy health  who  is  a  victim  of  worry,  anger, 
jealousy  or  fear.  Along  with  these,  we 
should  put  irresolution,  timidity,  depression, 
lack  of  confidence  in  one's  self — all  of  them 
Negative  Emotions,  utterly  unfitting  us  for 
the  conflict  of  life ! 

These  emotions  exhaust  the  life  energy 
and  leave  a  man  only  fractional  strength 
for  the  stubborn  ordeals  of  life.  People 
suffer  more  real  exhaustion  and  loss  from 
the  evils  they  fear — but  which  never  hap- 
pen— than  they  do  from  evils  that  actually 
materialize  in  their  lives.  At  an  old  man's 
funeral  it  was  said  of  him:  he  had  a  multi- 
tude of  troubles  in  life,  most  of  which  never 
happened.  What  an  infinite  pity  that  the 
time  and  strength  which  might  be  utilized 

23 


in  grand  achievements  for  ourselves  and  the 
world,  are  too  often  wasted  in  worry,  fear 
or  envy — with  the  one  result  of  weakness 
and  suffering  and  lost  opportunities  of  use- 
fulness? 

Fear  has  been  called  truly  "the  great 
hob-goblin  of  the  race."  It  magnifies  our 
foes  and  minifies  our  friends.  It  is  always 
saying:  "There  is  a  lion  in  the  way!"  Its 
cry  is  the  cry  of  the  coward  servant  of 
Elisha:  "Alas!  my  Master,  what  shall  we 
do?"  It  sees  the  foes,  difficulties  and  mag- 
nifies them  into  gigantic  proportions.  "The 
tearful  and  the  unbelieving"  both  go  to  the 
same  doom  according  to  Scripture. 

The  whole  progress  of  humanity — nation- 
ally and  individually — is  a  progress  from  the 
dominion  of  fear  to  the  realm  of  faith. 

Fear  has  a  strange  magnetic  power — a 
thought-creative  power — of  materializing 
into  our  outward  life  the  very  objects 
feared  I  It  seems  to  be  a  magnet  with  great 
force,  drawing  into  the  orbit  of  the  life 
the  very  object  feared  by  the  mind.  "The 
thing  that  I  "feared,"  said  the  sacred  writer, 
"is  that  which  came  upon  me."  Faith,  on 
the  other  hand,  says  with  Elisha:  "They 
that  are  for  us  are  greater  than  those  that 
be  against  us."  Faith  sees  the  angelic  hosts 
ready  to  assist  us  in  time  of  need.  Let  the 
student  remember  the  axiom:  "thought 
takes  form  in  action  and  being." 

24 


THE  WAY  TO  DRIVE  OUT 
WORRY,  FEAR,  ETC. 

In  place  of  centering  our  thought  upon 
the  Worry,  Fears,  Doubts  and  Irresolution, 
which  constitute  man's  mental  poison,  the 
proper  method  is  to  forget  that  these  have 
controlled  us,  and  put  all  our  mental  erfort 
into  the  cultivation  of  their  antidotes : 
Peace,  Trust,  Faith,  Resolution,  Courage. 
The  expulsive  power  of  a  new  and  con- 
trary idea  or  affection  is  recognized  by  all 
psychologists,  and  from  the  standpoint  "of 
mental  science  we  should  not  allow  the 
mind  to  dwell  upon  undesirable  qualities 
or  things.  Think  health,  not  sickness;  suc- 
cess, not  failure;  courage,  not  fear;  faith, 
not  doubt;  the  increasing  good  coming  into 
your  life,  not  the  evil. 

Especially  is  it  necessary  to  enlarge  and 
strengthen  Faith,  which  is  not  a  mere  be- 
lief or  assent  of  the  understanding  to  cer- 
tain statements — but  as  Edward  E.  Beals 
expresses  it:  "Faith  is  the  trolley  pole  which 
one  raises  to  meet  the  Great  Forces  of  Life 
and  Nature,  and  by  means  of  which  one  re- 
ceives the  inflow  of  the  Power  whicn  is 
behind,  and  in  all  things,  and  is  enabled  to 
apply,  that  Power  to  the  running  of  his  own 
affairs."  The  illustration  is  most  apt  and 
forcible.  Faith  is  the  vital  bond  of  con- 
nection between  the  soul  of  man  and  its 
25 


Infinite  Source  of  supply.  It  is  more.  It  is 
the  great  awakener  of  the  latent  forces  in 
the  soul  of  man.  To  the  sick  it  uncaps  the 
fountain  of  healing  waters  in  the  soul  and 
floods  the  whole  spiritual  nature  with  new 
life  and  power.  To  the  weak  it  brings 
strength ;  to  the  timid,  couriage ;  to  the  des- 
pairing, hope.  Faith  opens  the  soul's  in- 
terior vision  and  discloses  the  realities  of 
the  Spirit  Realm — realities  that  being  recog- 
nized and  patiently  waited  for,  have  the 
strange  power  of  materializing  themselves 
in  our  outward  life  conditions. 

We  must  assiduously  cultivate  Faith  in 
ourselves.  No  man  ever  becomes  truly  suc- 
cessful who  is  deeply  impressed  with  his 
own  weakness  or  inferiority.  It  is  the  con- 
fident, hopeful  men  who  carry  with  them 
the  thought-vibration:  "I  can  and  I  will/' 
who  win  in  life's  battle. 

If  a  man  could  keep  his  poor  opinion 
of  himself  to  himself,  even  then  it  would 
cripple  him  in  his  life  work,  but  the  more 
surely  does  it  do  so  because  every  one's 
fear  thoughts — however  zealously  he  may 
seek  to  hide  them  in  language  or  conduct — 
create  an  atmosphere  of  doubt,  timidity  and 
fear  about  him  that  radiates  into  the  minds 
of  all  who  come  in  contact  with  him. 

Thoughts  and  Moods  are  Catching.  No 
man  can  keep  his  thoughts  entirely  to  him- 
26 


self.  The  air  of  negativity — of  doubt  and  ir- 
resolution— with  which  multitudes  of  men 
surround  themselves  finds  its  way  into  other 
minds  and  becomes  a  barrier  to  success  at 
every  point. 

This  lack  of  confidence  in  yourself,  how- 
ever, is  most  disastrous  in  its  effects  upon 
yourself,  as  it  is  a  frost  which  kills  all  the 
budding  plans,  purposes  and  hopes  which 
are  so  essential  to  success.  Get  rid  then, 
I  beg  of  you,  of  all  false  notions  as  to  the 
limitations  of  your  own  powers — for  while 
it  is  quite  true  you  have  only  developed 
these  powers  to  a  very  limited  extent,  and 
there  seems  to  be  a  very  great  difference 
between  your  life  and  the  "lives  of  great 
men ;"  remember  there  is  absolutely  no  limit 
to  the  extent  to  which  your  powers  may  be 
unfolded.  You  are  vitally  connected  with 
the  Storehouse  of  Divine  Wisdom,  Power 
and  Strength  and  can  draw  at  will  and  to 
any  extent  for  "in  God  we  live  and  have 
our  being."  Potentially,  therefore,  you  have 
more  ability,  undeveloped  and  unused,  in 
your  nature  than  all  men  of  all  the  ages 
have  ever  exhibited. 

Cultivate,  too,  Faith  in  "the  Power  that 
makes  for  Righteousness/'  in  the  angelic 
wisdom  and  help,  in  a  Higher  Guiding  In- 
telligence in  your  life,  in  "Destiny,"  or  your 
"Guiding  Star" — as  the  Great  Souls,  who 
have  been  World  Leaders,  have  done. 
27 


Cultivate  absolute  faith,  too,  in  the  Laws 
(which  you  are  now  mastering)  of  Finan- 
cial Success  and  remember  that  the  throne 
of  God  is  no  more  stable,  the  revolution  of 
the  sun  no  more  certain,  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation no  more  a  fixture,  than  is  the  oper- 
ation of  these  fixed  laws  of  financial  in- 
crease. 

With  faith  in  self,  in  your  fellows,  in  the 
Law,  hold  your  head  erect,  assert  to  your 
own  soul  your  Mastery  of  Conditions,  and 
with  the  confidence  of  the  "I  can  and  I  will" 
spirit,  enter  life's  arena. 

Helen  Wilmans,  of  whose  remarkable 
career  we  shall  have  more  to  say  later,  de- 
clares : 

"I  made  myself  over  completely.  From 
being  like  a  limp  rag,  I  became  sufficiently 
positive  to  conquer  all  my  environments." 
In  another  place  she  declares,  "I  became  as 
a  God  and  knew  that  no  power  could  come 
against  me." 

CLAIM  FOR  YOURSELF 
UNLIMITED   POWER, 
WISDOM 

Until  a  man  gets  at  least  a  glimpse  into 

the  depths  of  human  nature  he  can  never 

realize    himself   or   life's    possibilities.      So 

long  as  he  measures  himself  and  sets  limita- 

28 


tions  on  his  forces,  so  long  will  he  limit 
his  achievements  and  all  his  life  expres- 
sions. 

The  True  View  is  that  no  one  can  meas- 
ure Man's  Greatness  (that  is  your  great- 
ness) any  more  than  he  can  fix  a  limit  to 
God's  Greatness.  Man  as  child  of  God, 
started  on  eternal  progression,  is  germinally 
at  least,  a  god,  and  the  clearer  his  vision  of 
this  truth,  the  more  constant  his  recog- 
nition of  this  fact,  the  faster  will  divinity 
manifest  in  his  character  and  life.  Every 
man  (that  means  you)  contains  germinally 
at  least  not  only  all  the  attributes  of  human 
greatness  (all  the  talent,  ability,  genius 
which  men  have  ever  given  expression  to 
in  history)  but  also  the  fulness  of  divinity. 
The  human  race  is  a  family  of  the  Gods. 
You  have,  therefore,  not  one  talent  but  the 
whole  ten  of  human  endowment.  You  have 
Genius,  which  is  but  concentrated  energy 
and  persevering  will  power.  You  have  "all 
power" — even  as  Jesus  declared  of  himself. 
You  are  more  than  able  to  conquer.  Hold 
this  thought:  it  means  success. 
29 


LESSON  II. 

PRINCIPLES  AND   METHODS   OF 
SUCCESS 

KEEP  BODY  AND  MIND 
IN  TIP-TOP  CONDITION 

If  the  mind  is  weakened  by  worries,  vain 
regret,  forebodings,  or  your  mental  forces 
spent  in  the  inharmonious  vibrations  of 
envy,  hatred,  distrust  or  malice;  or  if  the 
body  is  weakened  by  violation  of  natural 
law,  or  by  excesses,  over  indulgence  in  ap- 
petite, passion,  etc. ;  or  if  the  mind  and  body 
are  not  in  harmonious  relation  on  Nature's 
plan  for  their  harmonic  working,  do  not 
expect  success.  He  who  cannot  conquer 
the  world  within,  cannot  conquer  the  world 
without.  He  who  cannot  regulate  himself 
cannot  rule  over  conditions  and  other 
people.  The  promise  is:  "He  that  over- 
conieth  shall  inherit  all  things/'  but  it  is 
also  said  that  a  house  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand. 

In  the  first-class  condition  of  mind  and 
body  and  their  harmonious  working  on 
Nature's  Plan,  which  we  shall  presently  ex- 
plain, is  developed  the  power  to  tide  one 
over  difficulties,  to  triumph  over  conditions 
of  inheritance,  poor  environment  and  seem- 
ingly insuperable  obstacles  and  win  one's 
way  steadily  to  the  heights  of  success. 
30 


This  strength  in  constant  increase  can 
be  brought  into  your  life  if  you  will  keep 
a  free  and  clear  mind,  in  a  healthy  and  vig- 
orous body,  working  in  harmony  with  the 
Divine  Plan  of  Nature. 

Do  you  ask  me  what  that  Plan  is?  It 
is  revealed  in  the  location  of  the  organs  of 
the  brain,  where  you  find  those  represent- 
ing the  appetites  and  passions  at  the  base 
of  the  brain;  those  representing  intellectual 
powers  higher  up  and  nearer  the  crown; 
those  representing  the  spiritual  faculties  in 
the  crown  of  the  head.  This  shows  that 
the  body  is  subject  to  the  mind,  both  mind 
and  body  should  be  subservient  to  the  spir- 
itual nature. 

On  this  plan  you  can  organize  your  life 
and  secure  harmony,  and  harmony  means 
peace  and  power,  without  which  you  can 
never  conquer  the  world. 

A  life  and  character  built  upon  any  other 
plan  must  be  discordant,  weak,  chaotic — 
since  the  spiritual  nature  can  never  take  a 
subservient  place.  It  is  God's  plan  of  or- 
ganizing your  life.  Make  the  mind  positive, 
therefore,  toward  the  body;  the  spiritual 
nature  should  rule  all  departments  of  the 
life  .  Let  Reason  dictate  how  time,  money, 
energy,  be  spent,  just  how  far  appetite 
should  be  indulged,  hours  for  labor,  sleep, 
recreation,  and  through  all  life's  activities 
31 


let  there  run  a  High  Spiritual  Purpose  to 
make  the  most  and  best  of  life  for  yourself 
and  accomplish  the  most  good  for  humanity. 

AVOID  ALL  WASTE 

OF  TIME,  MONEY,  ENERGY 

Closely  related  to  the  above  is  the  careful 
conservation  of  life's  resources,  and  oppor- 
tunities. It  has  been  said  by  some  one  that 
''time  is  money,"  but  time  is  infinitely  more 
than  money.  Time  improved  spells  char- 
acter and  character  means  destiny,  so  the 
wasting  of  time  is  infinitely  greater  prodi- 
gality than  the  waste  of  money. 

Let  no  reader  mistake  me:  I  am  no  advo- 
cate of  constant  work,  believing  that  rest, 
recreation  and  amusement  are  as  necessary 
as  food  and  exercise,  especially  to  real  work- 
ers. Yet  it  is  the  unfortunate  fact  that  most 
of  the  recreation  and  amusement  are  not 
sought  by  the  workers  but  by  the  idlers. 
Good  judgment  must  determine  when  the 
mind  and  body  need  recreating,  and  time 
and  money  thus  spent  are  not  wasted  but 
used  to  good  advantage. 

But  so  much  time  and  money  are  need- 
lessly spent  by  multitudes,  where  mind  and 
body  do  not  require  the  sacrifice,  that  it 
seems  pitiable,  from  the  standpoint  of  self- 
improvement,  to  see  so  much  of  life  frit- 
tered away.  The  hours  spent  needlessly  by 
32 


men  and  boys,  if  improved  in  study  or  prac- 
tice, would  soon  mean  greater  efficiency  in 
labor,  better  wages,  shorter  hours,  and  com- 
fort if  not  affluence. 

Money  spent  on  cigars,  occasional  drinks, 
or  other  useless  expenditures,  if  saved  and 
invested,  would  soon  give  the  very  capital 
required  as  the  foundation  of  a  fortune. 

And  how  much  human  strength  and  mag- 
netic force  is  wasted  by  many  in  idle  talk, 
or  senseless  activity,  or  sensual  indulgence, 
that  would  give  vigor  to  the  blow,  convic- 
tion and  power  to  the  statement,  or  charm 
and  winning  force  to  the  personality,  if  con- 
served in  place  of  wasted. 

Thousand  of  men  go  to  business  every 
day  depleted  of  the  very  vital  and  magnetic 
forces  necessary  to  success,  because  they 
have  not  had  moral  courage  and  strength 
to  govern  the  body  and  its  passions  in  place 
of  being  governed  by  them.  Over  indul- 
gence in  this  regard  has  ruined  many  a 
man's  prospects  for  life. 

The  conservation  of  the  vital,  germinal 
forces  in  the  human  body  gives  light  to  the 
eye,  charm  to  the  voice,  magnetic  power 
to  the  personality,  and  that  indefinable  yet 
most  potential  ability  to  find  one's  way  into 
the  good  graces  and  wishes  of  others,  upon 
which  success  so  largely  depends. 

If  you  want  to  win,  go  to  business,  to 
the  office,  to  the  conference,  or  to  the  public 
33 


meeting,  brim  full  of  vitality  and  people  will 
realize  without  any  act  on  your  part  that 
a  king  is  in  their  midst. 

CULTIVATE  SEERSHIP 
IN  BUSINESS 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  Business  Clair- 
voyance and  to  be  successful  a  man  must  de- 
velop this  "inner  vision"  of  the  soul  so  that 
he  can  discover  the  doors  of  opportunity,  the 
pathways  around  him  leading  to  success. 
He  must  cultivate  alertness  of  mind,  close 
powers  of  observation,  careful  study  of 
present  and  prospective  conditions,  and  set 
his  imagination  at  work  in  constructive 
planning  for  success.  In  the  silence  a  man 
must  commune  with  his  own  soul  and  with 
present  conditions  and  then  build  up  men- 
tally better  possible  conditions  for  the  fu- 
ture. 

A  stolid  multitude  crosses  the  continent, 
but  having  eyes  to  see,  they  see  not,  the 
open  doors  to  wealth  in  the  unused  water 
power,  in  the  desert  convertible  into  a  para- 
dise by  a  stream  of  water,  in  the  outcropping 
ore  convertible  into  an  Eldorado ;  and  hav- 
ing ears  to  hear,  they  hear  not  the  many 
voices  calling  for  the  strong  arm  of  labor  and 
the  fertile  mind  to  change  the  wilderness 
into  a  garden  of  roses.  One  man  in  a 
thousand  possesses  business  clairvoyance 
as  a  natural  gift;  others  by  attention,  care 

34 


and  study  can  develop  it,  and  to  those  who 
thus  find  the  Door  of  Opportunity,  the  rest 
is  easy. 

"SEZITO  MYSELF': 
AUTO-SUGGESTION 

Undoubtedly  the  most  remarkable  discov- 
ery in  Psychology  in  our  times  is  the  Won- 
derful Power  of  Suggestion  in  the  formation 
of  character  and  the  awakening  of  the 
soul's  powers.  It  has  been  found  that  our 
lives  are  ruled  to  a  large  extent  by  sugges- 
tion— i.  e.,  by  impressions  made  upon  the 
mind  by  what  we  see,  hear  and  sense,  or  by 
telephathic  action  of  other  minds.  This  is 
true  of  men  generally  and  in  the  ordinary 
waking  state  that  they  are  ruled  and  gov- 
erned more  largely  in  this  way  than  would, 
at  first  sight,  seem  possible.  Under  sugges- 
tion received  from  without  or  by  telepathy 
men  often  do  what  they  had  not  planned; 
what,  in  some  cases,  they  had  not  dared  to 
do,  and  often  with  most  surprising  results  to 
themselves  and  to  others. 

Under  "Suggestion"  men  have  undertaken 
tasks  that  ordinarily  would  have  appalled 
them — sometimes  meeting  with  phenom- 
enal success,  sometimes  developing  in  the 
very  novel  attempts  thus  inspired,  powers 
of  mind  ^nd  body  they  did  not  believe  them- 
selves to  possess,  and  often  gathering  tc 

35 


themselves  new  strength  and  inspiration  in 
their  life  work. 

While  this  is  true  of  suggestion  received 
in  the  normal,  working  state,  it  is  found  that 
Suggestion  given  to  one  in  sleep,  or  in  the 
hypnotic  condition  enters  more  deeply 
into  the  nature,  affects  the  life  much  more 
powerfully,  and  has  a  most  surprising,  a 
seemingly  magical  effect,  in  calling  out  the 
latent  powers  and  talents  of  the  soul.  In- 
deed, the  records  of  the  results  of  suggestion 
are  so  wronderful  that  it  may  be  looked  upon 
as  the  real  "Aladdin  Lamp"  of  modern 
times  in  psychology. 

Its  affects  are  seen  not  only  in  a  changed 
and  strengthened  mental  condition,  greater 
courage,  faith,  daring  and  ability,  but  its 
marvelous  results  on  the  human  body  are 
now  fully  recognized  in  the  cure  of  disease, 
the  conquest  of  the  drink  and  opium  habit, 
and  the  general  regeneration  of  the  human 
system. 

Educators  of  the  New  School  and  all  stu- 
dents of  the  New  Psychology  know  it  to  be 
one  of  the  most  efficient  instruments  in  the 
building  of  character  and  the  proper  train- 
ing of  children.  Through  its  power  parents 
today  by  mental  suggestion  to  their  sleeping 
children  are  building  up  a  loftier  type  of 
manhood  and  womanhood  for  the  future,  en- 
dued with  powers  of  mind  and  body  sur- 
passing those  of  past  days. 

36 


While  all  this  and  much  more  is  true  of 
Suggestion  and  many  are  silently  curing  the 
sick  and  reforming  the  vicious  by  proper 
suggestions  administered  to  them  in  sleep, 
it  is  not  generally  known  that  the  same  won- 
derful power  may  be  applied  by  a  person 
to  himself,  by  what  is  known  as  Auto-Sug- 
gestion. 

The  Great  Sub-conscious  Mind,  which  is 
not  a  second  mind,  or  a  separate  mind,  but 
that  most  reservoir  of  subjective  mental  ac- 
tivities which  is  continually  active — which 
works  automatically — which  reasons  only 
deductively — which  presides  over  all  the 
vital  functions  (digestion,  circulation,  res- 
piration,, secretion,,  nutrition,,  etc.) — and 
rules  us  absolutely  in  sleep  and  hypnosis — 
is  amenable  to  suggestion  by  our  normal 
waking  consciousness.  All  our  ordinary 
thinking,  our  experiences  of  every  kind,  con- 
stitute suggestions  to  the  Subjective  Mind, 
which  receives  them  as  the  hopper  receives 
all  grain,  and  forthwith  proceeds  to  grind 
them  up  into  material  for  the  building  of 
our  minds,  and  into  patterns  and  ideals  for 
the  rebuilding  of  our  bodies.  So  we  are  con- 
stantly furnishing  these  suggestions  to  the 
subjective  mind  and  constantly  rebuilding 
mind  and  body  according  to  suggestions 
given. 

If  then  we  want  health,  vigor,  soundness 
of  body,  strong  mentality,  great  courage, 

37 


faith  and  will  power,  we  must  make  sug- 
gestions along  these  lines — by  constantly  af- 
firming to  ourselves  the  posession  of  these 
qualities — and  assuredly  we  will  find  them 
developed  in  our  characters  and  abundantly 
manifested  in  our  lives. 

A  fixed  idea  of  Health,  Happiness,  Suc- 
cess, implanted  in  the  mind  by  his  power 
of  Auto-Suggestion  is  worth  more  than  a 
fortune  to  any  man. 

In  this  way  we  should,  by  a  steady  habit 
of  Auto-Suggestion,  fix  in  the  Subjective 
Mind  the  strongest  possible  faith  in  our  own 
ability.  Dr.  Quackenbos  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity has  accomplished  seemingly  mir- 
aculous results  in  developing  great  ability 
in  music  and  art  in  boys  and  girls  in  a  few 
months  by  Suggestion,  which  would  ordin- 
arily have  taken  years  of  training,  and 
which  ability  might  never  have  manifested 
under  any  length  of  training  but  for  the 
strange  power  which  Suggestion  has  of  callr 
ing  out  the  latent  powers  of  the  soul.  Sug- 
gestions given  to  a  pupil  under  hypnosis  are 
accepted  with  unquestioned  faith,  and  faith 
seems  to  have  a  mysterious  power  of  heal- 
ing and  inspiring,  and  especially  of  awak- 
ening talent  lying  dormant. 

Men  generally  can  do  what  they  believe 
they  can  do,  and  they  cannot  do  what  they 
believe  they  cannot  do.  We  see  this  in  the 

38 


hypnotized  boy  who  being  told  he  cannot 
cross  a  certain  line  on  the  floor,  struggles 
in  vain  to  cross  it,  his  belief  holding  him  in 
captivity  and  utterly  suppressing  his  na- 
tural physical  powers. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  have  frequently 
heard  the  hypnotized  lad,  under  suggestion 
that  he  was  a  noted  orator,  arise  and  deliver 
a  surprising  address,  of  which  he  was  ut- 
terly incapable  in  his  normal  state.  And  I 
have  seen  the  hypnotized  subject  leap  over 
a  man's  head  under  the  stimulus  of  sugges- 
tion— a  feat  he  could  not  possibly  accom- 
plish in  his  waking  state. 

No  one  knows  the  reserve  powers  of  the 
mind.  If  you  would  awaken  them,  you 
must  cultivate  daily  by  Auto-Suggestion 
unlimited  faith  in  yourself. 

LESSON  III. 

PRINCIPLES  AND  METHODS  OF 
SUCCESS 

MAKE  THE  WORLD 
YOUR  DEBTOR:  HEAVEN 
WILL  REPAY 

We  know  not  how  much  faith  the  pupil 
may  have  in  the  Unseen  Universe  or  in  the 
Agency  of  Unseen  Intelligences  in  Mortal 
Life,  yet  we  shall  venture  to  state  the  Law 
of  Financial  Success  which  has  come  down 

39 


to  us  from  very  ancient  sources,  and  is  be- 
lieved by  many  to  have  had  an  Occult  or- 
igin. In  fact,  it  purports  to  be  a  teaching 
revealed  in  these  later  days  from  a  noted 
Hindu  Scientist  of  four  thousand  years  ago. 
It  professes  to  be  the  law  of  worldly  in- 
crease as  seen  from  the  standpoint  of  spirit 
life,  and  it  is  stated  above  in  the  Caption  of 
this  paragraph :  "Make  the  World  your 
debtor,"  by  serving  humanity  in  every  way, 
but  especially  on  the  highest  possible  plane 
of  service,  the  spiritual.  Make  the  debt  as 
great  as  possible.  Do  all  the  good  you  can, 
every  time  you  can,  everywhere  you  can, 
in  every  way  you  can,  and  to  every  man. 

The  underlying  thought  is  that  the  Angels 
who  administer  God's  providence  here  on 
the  mortal  plane  and  are  guardians  over 
humanity,  will  accept  as  done  unto  them- 
selves every  act  of  kindness  to  mortals,  and 
endeavor  to  repay  not  only  in  spiritual  but 
also  in  temporal  good. 

The  thought  of  the  kindly  sympathy  and 
help  of  the  angels  of  God  must  bring 
strength  and  cheer  to  every  worker  for  hu- 
man good. 

GREAT  IDEAS  AND  PROJECTS 
INTEREST  GREAT  MINDS 

Most  lives,  as  we  have  already  pointed 
out,  are  poor  and  mean  in  their  outward 
expression  and  conditions  because  the  in- 

40 


dividuals  are  mentally  poor  and  poverty- 
stricken.  Little  thoughts,  plans,  ideals  be- 
get little  interest,  little  effort,  little  zeal  in 
the  individual,  and  awaken  little  or  no  in- 
terest in  other  minds.  The  radical  differ- 
ence between  the  pop-corn  man  on  the  cor- 
ner and  the  Captain  of  Industry  or  the  finan- 
cial magnate,  is  in  the  size  of  their  ideas 
and  conceptions.  Pop-corn  ideas  beget  a 
'pop-corn  life;  great  ideas,  projects,  enter- 
prises, on  the  other  hand,  rouse  the  soul 
of  the  individual  to  zeal,  effort,  courage, 
daring,  commensurate  with  the  great  ideas. 

Great  men  cannot  be  approached  with 
any  project  of  a  trifling  character;  time  and 
mental  force  are  too  valuable  to  waste  on 
things  not  "worth  while."  If  we  accept  the 
theory  of  an  overshadowing  spiritual  uni- 
verse thronged  with  guardian  intelligences 
of  humanity,  we  may  well  believe  that  the 
noblest  intelligences  over  there  will  not 
enter  into  alliance  with  any  mortal  here, 
who  is  not  doing  something  "worth  while." 

A  man  should  continually  plan  greater 
and  still  greater  enterprizes  for  himself — 
should  have  the  courage  and  daring  to  em- 
bark upon  these  new  enterprises  trusting  in 
the  unfolding  powers  of  his  own  soul,  in 
the  great  law  of  evolution,  in  the  angelic 
help,  and  in  the  "Star  of  Destiny"  to  crown 
his  efforts  with  success.  Great  Ideas  and 

41 


Projects — if  accompanied  by  sound  judg- 
ment, proper,  plans  and  proportionate  zeal — 
produce  Great  Men  and  Great  Success. 

CULTIVATE  STRENGTH 
OF  WILL  POWER 

The  Will  is  the  directive  faculty  oi  the 
soul  and  when  in  harmony  with  Nature 
may  become  the  channel  of  personal  and 
spiritual  energy  as  real  as  the  force  of 
gravitation  or  electricity.  If  wrongly  dir- 
ected it  cannot  of  itself  insure  success,  for 
the  human  will  must  ever  be  subject  to, 
and  in  harmony  with,  the  Divine  Will.  Some 
teachers  and  writers  speak  as  though  the 
individual  man  simply  by  will  power  could 
set  aside  the  laws  of  nature,  or  thwart  the 
divine  will  as  expressed  in  general  law. 
Not  so.  As  well  assert  that  a  man  by  taking 
hold  of  his  boot  straps  could  lift  himself 
over  a  mountain.  But  where  a  man  wills 
truth  and  righteousness  or  formulates  any 
great  plan  in  harmony  with  Nature's  ordin- 
ation, the  will  of  man  thus  becomes  one  with 
the  Universal  Will,  which  is  a  channel  of 
the  divine  forces  of  the  Universe.  There 
seems  to  be  no  real  limit  to  human  achieve- 
ment in  harmony  with  nature's  laws  if  pur- 
sued unfalteringly  by  a  strong  and  uncon- 
querable will.  The  basis  of  all  personal 
power  resides  in  this  will.  All  great  and 
42 


successful  characters  possess  it  in  high  de- 
gree, i 

A  strong  will  is  a  mighty  cyclonic  force 
in  human  nature  that  creates  a  current  of 
vibrations  toward  its  possessor,  along  which 
are  brought  to  him  the  very  objects  willed. 
It  operates  by  natural  law  yet  its  results 
seem  at  times  miraculous. 

The  pupil  should  by  frequent  affirmation 
to  himself,  in  the  temple  of  his  own  Soul, 
assert  his  Will  and  Ability  to  conquer  all 
difficulties.  Many  have  suggested  this  af- 
firmation for  constant  use:  "I  can  and  I 
will." 

"The  human  will,  that  force  unseen 
The  offspring  of  a  deathless  soul, 
Can  hew  a  way  to  any  goal, 
Though  walls  of  granite  intervene." 

It  was  this  Will  Power  developed  in  high 
degree,  which  transformed  the  little  Cor- 
sican  into  the  most  magnificent  military 
leader  and  conqueror  the  world  ever  saw, 
Napoleon  Buonaparte.  He  would  regard 
nothing  as  impossible,  insisting  that  the 
word  "impossible"  was  only  found  in  the 
dictionary  of  fools,  that  it  was  not  a  French 
word  at  all.  When  told  that  the  Alps  stood 
in  the  way  of  his  victorious  march  into  Italy 
he  simply  said:  "There  shall  be  no  Alps," 
and  the  Simplon  Pass  was  the  result. 
43 


KEEP  A  WATCHFUL  EYE 
FOR  OPPORTUNITIES 

The  seeker  of  wealth  must  keep  all  his 
mental  faculties  alert  in  watching  for  "open- 
ings/' "chances,"  "favorable  tides."  and  be 
fertile  enough  in  plans  and  bold  enough  in 
courage,  to  turn  them  to  account. 

"Once  to  every  man  and  nation  comes  the 
moment  to  decide."  Shakespeare  says, 
"There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men, 
which,  taken  at  its  flood,  leads  on  to  for- 
tune." 

A  man  should  be  ready  in  advance  for 
these  open  doors.  The  man  in  service 
should  always  be  ready  for  a  higher  post. 
He  who  does  not  more  than  fill  his  position 
is  not  fitted  for  a  higher  one.  Read  the 
lives  of  men  who  have  risen  from  the  lowest 
to  the  highest  rung  of  the  ladder  and  you 
will  find  men  who  have  prepared  themselves 
in  advance,  and  by  extra  service  prepared 
their  own  advance. 

When  the  door  opens,  enter.  When  Op- 
portunity comes  your  way,  seize  her  by  the 
forelock  for  as  the  ancients  declared  she  is 
bald  behind.  The  Spanish  have  a  motto: 
"Half  the  misfortunes  in  life  come  from 
holding  in  one's  horse  when  he  is  leaping." 

44 


"REMEMBER:  MONEY 
COMES  FROM  DOING" 

The  pupil  will  bear  in  mind  that  if  great 
stress  has  been  laid  on  right  thinking,  feel- 
ing, willing,  and  much  labor  spent  in  the 
psychology  of  the  subject,  it  is  all  with  one 
object  in  view:  right  action  at  the  right 
time.  Nothing  can  take  the  place  of  patient, 
plodding  industry;  ideas  expressed  in  ac- 
tion; zeal,  will-power,  faith  and  energy 
translated  into  work. 

Helen  Wilmans  says  most  truly :  "Money 
comes  from  doing." 

WALLACE  D.  WATTLES' 
PRACTICAL  IDEAS 

In  a  little  pamphlet,  "How  to  Get  What 
You  Want/'  Mr.  Wallace  D.  Wattles  gives 
some  very  valuable  and  pertinent  advice 
on  Money  Making,  as  well  as  on  other  lines 
of  success.  We  summarize  a  few  of  his 
most  practical  teachings : 

The  cause  of  success  is  always  in  the  per- 
son who  succeeds ;  all  minds  are  formed  of 
the  same  essential  elements,  and  contain  the 
same  faculties,  the  difference  in  men  is  the 
degree  of  their  development;  it  is  certain, 
therefore,  that  you  can  succeed  if  you  can 
find  out  the  cause  of  success,  develop  it  to 
sufficient  strength  and  apply  it  properly  in 
your  work;  you  can  develop  any  power  to 

45 


an  unlimited  extent,  therefore  you  can  de- 
velop enough  success  power  to  succeed; 
you  must  develop  special  faculties  to  be 
used  in  your  own  special  work;  you  must 
choose  for  a  business  the  one  which  will 
call  for  the  use  of  your  strongest  faculties, 
and  then  develop  these  strongest  faculties 
to  the  highest  point  possible;  success  de- 
pends not  alone  or  chiefly  on  the  possession 
of  these  special  faculties — which  are  only 
the  tools  of  success — but  more  upon  the 
power  which  uses  the  tools;  this  something 
in  the  person  which  causes  him  to  use  his 
special  faculties  successfully  we  call  Active 
Power-Consciousness;  it  is  poise  and  more 
than  poise,  it  is  faith  and  more  than  faith,  it 
is  what  you  feel  when  you  know  you  can  do 
a  thing  and  know  how  to  do  the  thing ;  you 
must  learn  how  to  create  this  Power-Con- 
sciousness so  you  will  know  you  can  do 
what  you  want  to  do ;  you  must  not  only 
believe  you  can  succeed,  but  must  also 
know  you  can  succeed;  and  the  sub-con- 
scious mind  must  know  you  can  suc- 
ceed as  well  as  the  objective  mind;  people 
may  think  objectively  they  can  succeed, 
but  sub-consciously  doubt  that  they  will 
and  the  sub-conscious  doubt  will  thwart 
success:  the  sub-conscious  mind  must  be 
thoroughly  impregnated  with  the  knowl- 
edge that  you  have  the  power  and  know  how 
to  use  it  and  will  use  it. 
46 


Repeated  affirmations  for  a  month,  espec- 
ially just  before  sleep,  of  such  statements 
as  the  following  will  help  you  create  the 
sub-conscious  knowledge  of  success:  "I  can 
succeed:"  "I  am  successful:"  "what  others 
have  done  I  can  do :"  "I  can  do  what  I  want 
to  do ;"  "I  can  have  what  I  want  to  have." 

To  get  more  you  must  make  the  best 
constructive  use  of  what  you  have:  prog- 
ress depends  on  the  perfection  of  your  use 
of  what  you  have ;  the  squirrel  by  jumping, 
through  the  law  of  evolution,  in  time  ob- 
tains wings;  you  will  never  have  wings  if 
you  only  jump  half  as  far  as  you  can.  Every 
person  who  does  one  thing  perfectly  is  in- 
stantly presented  with  an  opportunity  of 
doing  some  larger  thing;  the  law  is  that 
wherever  an  organization  has  more  life  than 
can  find  expression  by  functioning  on  a 
given  plane,  its  surplus  life  lifts  it  to  the 
next  higher  plane;  live  for  the  future  now 
but  do  not  live  in  the  future  now ;  get  more 
business,  more  friends,  better  position  by 
using  constructively  what  you  have  now; 
concentrate  all  your  constructive  energies 
on  the  use  of  what  you  have  today;  make 
every  transaction,  experience  (even  the  ad- 
verse ones)  a  stepping  stone  to  nobler 
things ;  remember  it  is  the  surplus  of  life 
(ability)  on  one  plane  which,  under  evolu- 
tion, prepares  for  the  next  higher  plane; 

47 


make  friends  by  taking  a  real  interest  in 
every  one  you  meet;  fill  perfectly  every 
present  relation  and  be  ready  in  advance 
for  the  promotion  sure  to  come. 

HOW  HELEN  WILMANS 
CONQUERED  POVERTY 

"Lives  of  great  men/'  and  of  great  women 
as  well,  "all  remind  us,  we  can  make  our 
lives  sublime."  No  truth  in  words  impres- 
ses us  so  strongly  as  the  truth  in  a  life. 
Helen  Wilmans'  life  story  is  a  Bible  of  Rev- 
elations for  the  age  in  which  we  live — full 
of  the  new  thought,  the  new  theology  and 
the  divinest  inspiration. 

Mrs.  Wilmans  declares  that  fear  is  at  the 
bottom  of  poverty — fear  of  others  and  dis- 
trust of  self.  She  declares:  "I  have  known 
poverty  most  thoroughly.  I  was  held  in  a 
belief  of  its  power  all  through  the  earlier 
part  of  my  life;  I  looked  to  others  as  my 
superiors,  I  was  ready  to  take  a  place  be- 
neath them;  I  was  tortured  day  and  night 
by  actual  want." 

"Then  my  reasoning  powers  began  to 
awaken,  first  on  the  subject  of  religion,  then 
on  other  things  and  my  mind  broke  its  fet- 
ters so  I  began  to  see  the  light.  I  threw  off 
a  hundred  beliefs  considered  essential  to 
salvation.  I  slowly  acquired  a  measure  ot 
individuality  that  enabled  me  to  stand 
alone." 

48 


Read  the  story  of  her  life;  it  is  thrilling 
and  most  instructively  interesting.  A  far- 
mer's wife,  the  farm  mortgaged  and  then 
sold,  in  poverty,  all  her  possessions  in  a 
valise,  without  money,  securing  a  ride  to 
a  town  five  miles  distant,  whence  with  $10 
borrowed  money,  wrenched  by  mental  force 
from  a  shoemaker,  she  proceeds  to  'Frisco, 
spends  her  capital,  fasts  three  days,  refuses 
though  hungry  any  work  or  job,  save  what 
she  has  set  her  heart  upon,  newspaper  work, 
which  at  last  she  secures  it  at  $6.00  a 
week — then  loses — gains  another  place. 
Then  one  day  she  throws  down  her  pen 
and  marches  out  of  the  office,  determined  to 
serve  others  no  longer,  she  stands  alone  in 
the  sleet  and  snow  of  the  street,  her  sole 
capital  25  cents  and  her  own  self-reliance, 
and  resolves  to  found  a  newspaper  of  her 
own.  She  goes  home  and  the  boarding 
housekeeper,  suspicious  of  her  early  return, 
asks: 

"Have  you  been  discharged  by  the  chief?" 

"No,"  she  answers,  "I  have  discharged  the 
chief." 

"Is  your  bread  and  butter  assured?"  he 
asks. 

"My  bread  and  butter  are  assured,"  she 
answers. 

49 


"How?"  he  asks. 

"I  am  going  to  found  a  paper  and  it  is 
a  success  before  it  is  born.  Listen  and 
I'll  read  you  my  first  editorial." 

Then  she  read  him  her  editorial  on  "I", 
and  he  sat  listening  to  the  burning  enthu- 
siasm and  the  ringing  clarion  tones  of  free- 
dom and  aggressiveness,  till  his  soul  was 
on  fire  and  his  face  illummed  and  he  cried 
out:  "I'll  gamble  on  you.  I  have  $20,000 
in  the  bank.  You  can  draw  on  every  dollar 
if  you  like." 

She  refused,  but  asked  him  to  wait  for  a 
short  time  for  her  board  bill.  Three  days 
later  when  $7.00  came  in,  they  danced  with 
joy  around  the  table  till  the  dishes  were 
scattered  and  broken.  Then  followed  more 
subscriptions,  donations,  appreciation,  lar- 
ger hopes,  plans,  courage  and  success. 

She  conquered    poverty    by    conquering 
fear,  learning  of,  and  trusting  in  herself  and 
daring  to  say,  "I  can  and  I  will." 
50 


PLANNING 

One  great  secret  of  success  in  life  is  care- 
ful, wise  and  prudent  planning  of  our  la- 
bors in  advance.  Perhaps  in  no  one  thing 
does  the  successful  man  surpass  the  unsuc- 
cessful more  than  in  the  ability  to  foresee 
the  future,  prepare  and  arrange  his  plans  to 
meet  its  exigencies  and  to  so  direct  his  la- 
bors to  avoid  loss  of  time,  money  and  en- 
ergy, and  make  all  his  work  bear  directly 
on  the  attainment  of  his  great  purpose  in 
life. 

All  great  generals — Caesar,  Hannibal, 
Napoleon,  Wellington,  Grant —  have  ex- 
celled in  ability  to  lay  out  practical  plans  of 
campaign  and,  in  a  multitude  of  great  bat- 
tles, the  victory  has  been  won  more  largely 
by  skillful,  bold  and  decisive  planning  than 
by  the  use  of  superior  force. 

What  is  the  chief  thing  in  good  Planning? 
We  answer  that  the  first  essential  is  knowl- 
edge. Take  the  general  about  to  engage 
the  enemy's  forces  in  battle.  What  does 
he  need  especially  for  the  formation  of  his 
plans  of  battle?  Chiefly  knowledge.  He 
needs  to  know  fully  the  forces  arrayed  ag- 
ainst him;  he  needs  to  know  accurately  the 
forces  at  his  command;  he  needs  to  know 
the  weak  and  strong  points  of  both  armies ; 
he  needs  to  know  every  foot  of  the  ground 

51 


over  which  the  battle  may  rage;  and,  in 
short,  the  more  complete  and  accurate  his 
knowledge,  the  better  plan  of  battle  can 
he  lay  out  and  the  greater  his  prospect  of 
success. 

The  architect  before  building  must  know 
the  nature  of  the  site,  quality  of  material, 
figure  out  the  cost,  take  into  account  the 
element  of  time  and  weather,  and,  in  short, 
build  his  structure  completely  in  mind  be- 
fore he  builds  it  in  mortar,  as  the  success- 
ful general  must  fight  out  in  the  mental 
arena  his  battle  before  he  successfully  fights 
the  enemy. 

So  every  young  person  in  planning  his 
life  work  needs,  especially,  knowledge.  First, 
he  needs  to  know  himself,  physically,  in- 
tellectually and  morally,  his  strength  and 
weaknesses,  his  tastes,  inclinations  and  spec- 
ial talents. 

The  next  essential  in  successful  planning 
is  such  a  scheme  as  will  recognize  all  the 
great  facts  and  factors  entering  into  the  life. 
Every  young  man  should  study  himself — 
know  his  own  ability,  find  out  his  own  tal- 
ent and  special  inclinations,  and  then  lay 
out,  as  a  general  does  his  order  of  battle, 
as  an  architect  does  his  building,  his  life 
plan. 

52 


A  large  class  of  young  men  seem  to  have 
formulated  no  plans,  schemes,  purposes,  be- 
yond the  present  and  the  immediate  future. 

Not  long  since  I  heard  a  distinguished 
man  giving  one  great  reason  for  his  suc- 
cess— and  he  had  risen  under  very  adverse 
influences  from  ignorance  and  poverty  to 
wide  knowledge  and  a  position  of  great 
honor  and  power — in  these  words: 

"When  as  a  country  lad  I  entered  college 
in  my  'teens,  I  laid  out  carefully  in  advance 
a  course  of  five  years  in  Arts  and  four  fol- 
lowing years  in  Theology.  I  was  poor  and 
had  to  earn  my  money  during  the  vacations, 
by  editorial  work  during  the  college  year, 
and  labored  under  great  disadvantages  in 
other  respects.  Yet  my  carefully  matured 
plans  I  followed  out  through  nine  years 
without  deviation,  and  if  I  have  met  with 
success  in  life  it  has  been  largely  owing  to 
my  ability  to  plan  my  work  carefully  and 
then  stick  to  my  plans  until  I  had  completed 
them." 

THE  RIGHT  USE 
OF  DIFFICULTIES 

There  is  no  better  test  of  character  than 
a  man's  treatment  of  difficulties.    The  cow- 
ard shuns  them;  the  lazy  man  tries  to  go 
around  them;  the  idler  dawdles  in  front  of 
53 


them,  waiting  like  Micawber  for  something 
to  turn  up  or  some  miracle  to  remove  them ; 
the  baby-man  waits  for  some  friend  to  lift 
him  over  them ;  but  the  manly  man  sur- 
mounts them. 

There  are  two  important  questions  for 
young  men :  How  are  we  to  think  about  our 
difficulties?  How  are  we  to  treat  our  diffi- 
culties? 

1.  How  are  we  to  think  about  the  diffi- 
culties we  meet  in  life?  This  is  a  question 
of  vast  importance,  for  upon  its  correct  solu- 
tion depends  largely  our  happiness  and  our 
success. 

We  should  never  look  upon  difficulties  as 
misfortunes.  They  are  often,  and  when 
rightly  used,  always  among  our  greatest 
blessings.  Difficulties  encountered  start 
the  mind  to  active  enterprise,  develop  the 
inventive  genius,  spur  us  to  exertion,  sum- 
mon our  resources  and  exercise  them  for 
growth  and  enlargement. 

Difficulties  are  to  young  people  what  the 
wind  is  to  the  young  oak — nature's  method 
of  causing  us  to  lay  hold  more  deeply  on 
her  strength  and  grow  stronger  fibre  in  our 
mental  and  moral  being.  Difficulties  furnish 
us  our  grandest  opportunities — becoming, 

54 


as  they  do,  the  great  incentive  and  inspir- 
ation to  our  undeveloped  forces.  They  call 
forth  our  reserve  power.  They  are  Heaven- 
ordained  instrumentalities  for  awakening 
the  slumbering  powers  within  us  to  life 
and  activity. 

A  young  man  with  many  difficulties  in 
his  way  ought  to  thank  God  and  take  cour- 
age. He  should  spell  the  word  d-i-f-f-i- 
c-u-1-t-i-e-s,  but  should  pronounce  it  oppor- 
tunities. 

2.     How  are  we  to  treat  our  difficulties? 

First,  we  must  face  them  squarely.  Many 
of  life's  difficulties  are  more  imaginary  than 
real.  They  dwindle  to  insignificance  the 
moment  we  gaze  resolutely  upon  them. 
Study  them  as  carefully  as  you  would  an  op- 
ponent in  battle  whom  you  are  determined 
to  conquer.  Learn  all  you  can  from  friend 
and  foe  about  the  difficulties  you  are  en- 
countering. Remember  you  are  born  to  con- 
quer, and  resolve  to  be  a  victor.  Let  there 
be  no  shunning,  no  whining,  no  waiting,  no 
sickly,  babyish  dependence  on  others.  Your 
own  right  hand,  your  own  strong  heart, 
your  own  indomitable  will — these  can  give 
you  the  victory.  ^ 

55 


Take  your  difficulties  as  the  athletes  take 
their  hard  and  rigid  training — with  a  wel- 
come; and  remember  each  difficulty  con- 
quered means  more  manly  strength. 

Read  the  history  of  the  world's  greatest 
men  and  see  how  they  conquered  poverty, 
prejudice,  and  opposition;  how  they  tri- 
umphed over  bodily  weakness  ("out  of  weak- 
ness were  made  strong" — through  difficul- 
ties) ;  how  they  overcame  mental  and  moral 
deficiencies,  and  rose  up  giants  from  the 
contests  and  victors  in  the  battle,  and  be- 
came men  of  whom  the  world  was  no* 
worthy,  because  they  overcame  difficulties. 

Conquer  your  difficulties  and  you  have 
conquered  the  world. 

SELF-ASSERTION 

AS  A  SUCCESS  FACTOR 

Many  a  well  educated  man  of  good  ad- 
dress and  ability  fails  to  win  a  satisfactory 
position  in  life  because  he  lacks  self-asser- 
tion. He  has  a  shrinking  nature  and  abhors 
publicity;  the  thought  of  pushing  himself 
forward  is  repugnant  to  him,  and  so  he  is 
left  behind  in  the  race  by  the  hustling,  stir- 
ring, vigorous  people  around  him,  many  of 
whom  do  not  possess  one-tenth  of  his  ability 
or  natural  advantages. 

56 


Many  young  people  have  a  totally  mis- 
taken conception  of  the  meaning  of  healthy 
aggressiveness.  They  frequently  confound 
it  with  egotistic  boastfulness,  decry  it  as  a 
lack  of  modesty,  and  consider  it  the  sign  of 
petty,  vulgar  soul.  They  think  it  unbecom- 
ing to  try  to  make  a  good  impression  in  re- 
gard to  their  own  ability,  and  shrink  from 
public  gaze,  believing  that,  if  they  work 
hard,  even  in  retirement,  they  will  come  out 
all  right. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  in  this  com- 
petitive age,  it  is  not  only  indispensable  to 
have  our  mental  storehouses  well  stocked 
with  superior  goods,  but  it  is  also  necessary 
to  advertise  them,  for  even  an  inferior  ar- 
ticle, if  well  advertised,  will  often  sell  rap- 
idly, while  a  superior  one  without  adver- 
tisement will  sell  at  a  dead  loss. 

No  one  sympathizes  with  the  blatant,  con- 
ceited, over-confident  youth  who  has  the  list 
of  his  accomplishments  and  virtues  at  his 
tongue's  end,  and  inflicts  them  on  any  one 
he  can  induce  to  listen.  He  is  the  very  op- 
posite of  the  unassuming  young  man,  who, 
while  conscious  of  his  power,  makes  no  par- 
ade of  it,  but  simply  carries  himself  as  if  he 
knew  his  business  thoroughly. 

57 


When  questioned  as  to  what  he  can  do,  a 
modesty  self-assertive  person  does  not  give 
weak,  hesitating  answers,  saying,  "I  think 
I  can  do  that,"  or  "Perhaps  I  could  do  it," 
creating  a  feeling  of  doubt  not  only  in  his 
own  mind  but  also  in  that  of  his  questioner, 
which  undoubtedly  acts  to  his  disadvantage. 
He  knows  he  can  do  certain  things,  and  he 
says  so  with  a  confidence  that  carries  con- 
viction. 

This  is  the  sort  of  self-assertion  or  self- 
confidence  that  young  men  and  women  must 
cultivate  if  they  would  raise  themselves  to 
their  full  value.  It  is  a  quality  as  far  re- 
moved from  vulgar,  shallow  self-conceit  as 
the  calm  exercise  of  conscious  power  is  from 
charlatanism. 

Thousands  of  young  men  and  young  wo- 
men are  occupying  inferior  positions  today 
because  of  their  over-humility,  so  to  speak, 
or  fear  of  seeming  to  put  themselves  for- 
ward. Many  of  them  are  conscious  that 
they  are  much  abler  than  the  superinten- 
dents or  managers  over  them,  and  are  con- 
sequently dissatisfied,  feeling  that  an  injus- 
tice has  been  done  them,  because  they  have 
58 


been  passed  over  in  favor  of  more  aggres- 
sive workers.  But  they  have  only  them- 
selves to  blame.  They  have  been  too  mod- 
est to  assert  themselves  or  to  assume 
responsibility  when  occasion  has  warranted,  \ 
thinking  that  ,  in  time  their  real  ability 
would  be  discovered  by  their  employ- 
ers, and  that  they  wodld  be  advanced 
accordingly.  But  a  young  man  with 
vif  and  self-confidence,  who  courts  respon- 
sibility, will  attract  the  attention  of 
those  above  him,  and  will  be  promoted  when 
a  retiring,  self-effacing,  but  much  abler 
youth  who  worked  beside  him  is  passed  by. 

It  is  useless  to  say  that  merit  ought  to 
win  under  any  circumstances — the  fact  re- 
mains that  there  is  very  little  chance  for  a 
young  man,  no  matter  what  his  ability,  to 
forge  ahead,  if  he  lacks  a  just  appreciation 
of  himself  and  is  destitute  of  that  conscious- 
ness of  power  and  willingness  to  assume  re- 
sponsibility which  impresses  his  personality 
on  others  and  opens  the  door  to  recognition 
of  his  merit. 

"  Tis  true,  'tis  pity,  and  pity  'tis,  'tis  true" 
that  modest  worth  that  retires  from  the  pub- 
59 


lie  gaze  and  works  in  secret,  waiting  to  be 
discovered  and  to  have  prizes  thrust  upon 
it,  waits  in  vain.  The  world  moves  too  fast 
in  this  twentieth  century  to  turn  aside  to 
seek  out  shrinking  ability.  We  must  all  go 
to  the  world. 

We  need  not  delude  ourselves  with  the 
idea  that  it  will  come  to  us,  no  matter  how 
able  or  meritorious  we  may  be.  While  ac- 
tual inability  can  never  hope  to  hold  its 
own,  even  though,  through  self-conceit  and 
aggressive  methods,  it  may  succeed  in  push- 
ing its  way  ahead  for  a  time,  it  is  equally 
true  that  shrinking,  self-effacing  ability  rare- 
ly comes  to  its  own. — Success 


60 


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